MILITARY PHARMACY AND MEDICINE

© Military Pharmacy and Medicine • 2012 • 4 • 97 – 104 Review articleEmergency MedicineSustainable development in light of international cooperationRadosław ZiembaMilitary Centre for Pharmacy and Medical Technology in Celestynow, PolandAuthor’s address:Radosław Ziemba, Military Centre of Pharmacy and Medical Technique, ul. Wojska Polskiego 57,05–430 Celestynów, Poland; e–mail: zx11@op.plReceived: 2012.09.19 • Accepted: 2012.11.22 • Published: 2012.12.08Summary:Numerous developed countries as well as those entering this path have established strategies of sustainabledevelopment. Areas of activity presented in this work illustrate the wide scope of parameters andchallenges for maintaining sustainable development, both on a local as well as global scale.Key words: hsustainable development, European Union directive, areas of action, eliminating the effectsof environmental pollution, Rio declaration.Balanced development –scope of the conceptSustainable development is defined as a broadlyunderstood social goal, encompassing balancedenvironmental quality accompanied by achievementof social and economical goals. The term“sustainable” may be defined as maintainingenvironmental capacity in time. It also encompassesaspects such as: availability of naturalresources, waste assimilation, cultural values,heritage values, climate stability and maintainingbiodiversity. Such environmental capacitymay be measured using environmental indexessuch as: size of protected areas, size of ecosystems,number of species, level of pollution andsize of resources, particularly with regard to irreplaceablematerials.This term is a result of previously mentionedreport created by the former Norwegian primeminister, current director of World HealthOrganization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, titled“Our common future.” The English term “Sustainabledevelopment” was used there. Finding anhttp://military.isl-journals.comanalogous Polish expression that would properlyreflect the sense of words contained in the mentioneddocument was somewhat troublesome.Following numerous discussions, we translatedthese words as: “trwały i zrównoważony rozwój”(steady and balanced development), althoughthere are some in favor of “ekorozwój” (ecodevelopment)or “trwały rozwój” (steady progress).A concept of “balanced development” as a shorterversion of the previous expression also appearsin various documents and reports. This generalconcept lies at the foundations of environmentalpolitics of many countries. However, somescientific uncertainty and diverse opinions indicate,that there is still a problem concerning thevalue of environmental capacity. However, thereare indexes, which may prove as useful operativeinstruments for comparison with policy goalsand environmental standards, both domesticand international.Strategic environmental evaluation is an instrumentfor comparison of analyzed plans and97